Norco to Reap Tax Benefit After Sale of Navy Property

The federal government agreed Monday to sell 80 acres of Navy surplus land to a Corona-based developer, opening the way for a $2-million annual tax windfall for the city’s redevelopment projects.

“Santa Claus came today,” John Donlevy, Norco’s city manager, said Monday.

A $1.48-million bid for the land, submitted last week by Bill Deane of Corona, amounts to more than $18,400 per acre--”slightly over” the value set by a government appraiser, said Harold Spady, realty specialist for the General Services Administration in San Francisco.

“I know the city is anxious to have it developed,” Spady said. “It ought to be a good deal for everybody.”

Construction of houses on the tract, at the southwest end of the Naval Weapons Center in Norco, could begin before the year is out, predicted Deane, president and half-owner of Deane Financial Inc.

‘Excellent News’

“It’s excellent news,” Donlevy said. “I’m surprised that they accepted the bid, but very pleased. . . . There’s 80 acres of land that’s been sitting there (vacant), right in the middle of the city.”

Norco now collects no taxes on the federally owned tract. But because the land lies within the city’s redevelopment area, the city will keep all property tax revenue that its sale and development will generate, Donlevy explained. “This could mean in excess of $2 million a year in tax increment to the (city’s redevelopment) agency.”

The General Services Administration in 1984 rejected a bid of $1.3 million for the same parcel, where Norco’s general land-use plan calls for single-family homes on lots of at least 20,000 square feet, or about half an acre.